


Dear Listeners

by Flavortext



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, First Meeting, Jester is Cecil Beau is Carlos, One Shot, Welcome to Nightvale AU, listen, maybe this will become a multi chapter thing later but for now, this fits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 06:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20059786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flavortext/pseuds/Flavortext
Summary: Beau's first research mission with the Cobalt Soul brings her to an unexplainable town and a new...friend?





	Dear Listeners

**Author's Note:**

> This idea grabbed me at like 10 pm last night and didn't go away. I might write an actual like... long fic for this one day but for now I just wanted to get this out there!

Beau sets the last box down on the rickety table of her ‘lab’ (really just the open half of her one-room loft apartment, but who’s judging?) and sighs. The evening light streaming in through her window shows an assortment of boxes, her suitcase, a stained mattress, and the table she’s laid out all her equipment on. Beau scrapes a chair across the floor and sits at the table, taking objects out of the box and laying them out. 

She has everything from night vision goggles (Bless the Cobalt Soul for taking pity on her lack of dark vision) to a seismograph, which she sets aside to fiddle with tomorrow and an assortment of instruments of detecting and measuring magic and planar energy. She lines everything up and pulls the last object out of the box. It’s a handheld radio, battery powered. Beau doesn’t remember packing it. She curiously extends the antenna and presses the power button. 

“-lot. A new woman came into town today. Who is she? What does she want from us? Why her perfect and beautiful haircut? Why her perfect and beautiful coat? She says she is a scientist. Well... we have  _ all _ been scientists at one point or another in our lives. But why now? Why here? And what does she plan to do with all those breakers and humming electrical instruments in that lab she’s renting?” A voice on the radio says. Beau stares. She can’t place the accent, it’s feminine and cheery and  _ almost certainly _ talking about her. She stares and swallows. Maybe she’s being self-centered- surely it could be someone else? The voice on the radio is still talking, something about helicopters now, but Beau hears none of it. She tries to change the radio station, but the only other one the machine picks up is just a soft voice reading a string of numbers. She makes a mental note to see if it’s a code, later, before settling back on the first station. She sits as the sun dips in the sky, and listens. 

The woman on the radio is named Jester, Beau learns over the next few days. It’s kind of a news station, Beau thinks. Except half the stuff it reports can’t  _ possibly _ be news, either because they can’t possibly be  _ happening _ , or because this woman can’t possibly  _ know _ them. Beau really does try to go about her business, but every day her mission from the Cobalt Soul, to try and figure out why so much magical energy is focused in on this little town in the desert, gets further and further away in her mind. She walks past the house that doesn’t exist with headphones in, the radio tucked in her jacket pocket. Jester is talking about how Beau has discovered that time doesn’t work in Nightvale. 

Beau hasn’t told this to anyone besides Dairon and Caleb. Beau grits her teeth. She makes up her mind and takes a left where she would take a right to get back to her apartment. The street turns to shops, downtown drag. Beau stomps up to the three-story building topped with a radio tower and glares up at it. The sun beats back down on her. Jester announces the weather, and with a click, some quirky music starts to play. Beau can’t figure out if that's a comedy bit or if there’s something she’s supposed to interpret about the outside climate from the song. She pulls her headphones out and pushes open the door. 

Beau can’t say she’s ever been in a radio station before, but the building is surprising...mundane, for all she expected from Jester’s show. There’s no one at the lobby desk, but a sign on the wall shows that the first two floors are offices, and the third floor is the actual station. Beau takes the stairs and emerges in a carpeted office. There’s a coffee machine, a few cubicles, a couch and low table littered with magazines, and a few doors to private offices. At the far end of the room is a heavy-looking door, with a lit-up sign above it reading “BOOTH”. Beau scans the office, finds it empty, and crosses the room. There’s a weird whooshing sound from behind the door marked “Station Management”, but Beau pauses in front of the booth and doesn’t hear anything else. 

Beau knocks. There’s a little window on the door, through which she can see a cluttered room with a soundboard, facing another window through which she sees a desk, microphone, and chair. Beau rests back on her heels, because she had to stretch up to even see-through, and waits. Maybe Jester’s out, though she was just on air. Beau raises her hand to knock again, and the door swings open. 

“OH, hello!” Before Beau stands a short blue tiefling, with little curly black horns resting amongst wavy dark blue hair, dangling jewelry sparkling off them. She’s freckled and has tattoos winding on her neck and all over her arms and what Beau can see of her chest. She’s wearing a bright yellow dress and clashing leggings and no shoes, and her tail whips excitedly back and forth behind her like a dog. She’s smiling showing off sharp teeth, and holding onto the doorframe with a hand over her heart. 

“Uh,” Beau stammers, a little overtaken by how  _ cute _ Jester is. She’d been prepared to be angry at the woman who seems to know so much information about her and is definitely spying on her and sharing that information with the whole town, but she feels that annoyance melt away as the violet eyes in front of her crinkle at the edges. 

“Beauregard!” Jester chirps, grabbing onto Beau’s arm. Beau startles, and Jester immediately lets her go. “Sorry, to what do I owe the pleasure? Is there some cool new science you want me to share on the air! Come in!” Jester backs up, waving Beau into the booth. She steps over the threshold cautiously. Jester sweeps some old newspapers off a couch in this room and sits down, facing Beau expectantly. Beau very slowly sits. 

“Hello, I’m- well, you know who I am,” Beau says lamely. Jester nods, hands clasped in front of her. 

“And I’m Jester! But you listen to the show, so you knew that.” Jester says excitedly. 

“Right, uh, that’s why I’m here, actually,” Beau says, distracted by the way Jester’s tail curls and comes to rest on her knee. Jester doesn’t seem to notice. “I’m kind of here on... covert business,” Beau says, trying to sound calm. Jester just nods. 

“You’re doing super secret important science, of course,” Jester says. Beau groans internally. She is pretty sure she’s not getting through here. 

“Yeah, it’s kind of supposed to be  _ secret _ , is the thing,” Beau says. Jester tilts her head, ears twitching. 

“Is something wrong?” She asks. Beau actually does groan, now. 

“Look, I don’t know how you- I wouldn’t care too much if you were just super interested in the science I’m doing! I’m happy to talk to you about the weird stuff that goes on here, I am! We can get lunch or something sometime! But I  _ need _ some privacy. I need my private phone calls to not get repeated on air. The stuff the Cobalt Soul is doing, some of the stuff I’m doing here could  _ really _ get some people in trouble with the empire. And you’ve kinda been- you know...” Beau waves at the booth behind Jester. Jester just looks at her, smiling widely. 

“We could get lunch?” She asks, soft and hopeful. Beau blinks at her. 

“I- yes? If you’d like?” Beau says. “If it means I can have some privacy back?” She adds. Jester seems to mull this over for a moment. 

“It’s a date, then!” She says, holding a hand out to Beau. Beau tentatively takes it, shakes once before dropping her hand back to her lap. Jester giggles. 

“I’ll uh, I’ll give you my phone number. Unless you already know it?” Beau certainly hopes she doesn’t, but it relieved when Jester pulls a pen out from behind her ear, previously completely hidden by her hair, and grabs Beau’s arm. 

“I don’t keep my phone on me, but I will start!” She says as she writes a string of numbers on Beau’s forearm. She ends it with a smiley face and a heart. 

“Oh- okay.” Beau stares at the large blocky numbers on her skin. Jester releases her wrist and claps her hands together. 

“I have to get back to the show, but please stop by again any time, okay?” She says, standing. Beau finds herself smiling as she stands too. 

“Okay, thank you, for uh,” Beau waves vaguely. Jester giggles again and nods then steps close and kisses Beau’s cheek. She sweeps away and back into the booth before Beau can react. Beau stands dumbly and watches as Jester sits in her chair, does a cute little wiggle, and puts on her headphones. She looks up at Beau still standing in the sound room, then presses a button on her desk. 

“You can stay and watch if you want?” Jester asks, voice floating through a speaker on the soundboard. Beau swallows. 

“I gotta go but, I’ll text you?” She offers. Jester nods her head and gives a thumbs up. Beau smiles back at her and waves a little before showing herself out. She slips her headphones in as she heads for a bathroom she passed on the way in from the stairs. The break music ends as Beau steps inside, ready to splash some water on her face to try and get rid of the blush she can feel lingering on her cheeks. 

“ _ Listeners, you’ll never guess who just stopped by-” _ Beau misses the rest because there’s a dog floating next to the sink. He wags his tail and barks at her. Beau gives one long stuttering sigh and lets the door close behind her. She’s pretty sure this town is going to be the end of her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @transfjord on tumblr!   
Kudos and comments feed the beast.


End file.
